Adapting Interactive Learning Environments To Student Competences

This monograph focuses on the design of personalized and adaptive online interactive learning environment (OILE) to enhance students’ learning in and about complex dynamic systems (CDS). Numerous studies show that students experience difficulties when learning in and about CDS. The difficulties are due to challenges originating from a) the structural complexity of CDS, (b) the production of dynamic behavior from the underlying systems structure, and (c) methods, techniques and tools employed in the analysis of such systems. Despite the fact that studies have uncovered such learning challenges, it is still not well understood how we may effectively address these challenges. In this monograph, the authors provide some answers as to how we may best improve our cognitive capabilities to meet these challenges by way of effective instructional methods, techniques, and tools and their implementation in the form of an OILE. The OILE developed for this purpose, builds on a five-step holistic instructional design framework; identification of instructional design models, identification of authentic learning material, identification of instructional methods, identification of instructional techniques, and design of the interface and implementation of the tool. In this OILE development, six well-documented instructional design models were considered; a four component instructional design, first principles of instruction, constructivists learning environment, task centered instruction, cognitive apprenticeship, and elaboration theory.

Adaptive Learning Environments (ALEs) can be viewed as the intersection of two traditionally distinct areas of research: instructional science and computer science. They encompass intelligent tutoring systems, interactive learning environments, and situated learning environments. There is increasing interest in effective instructional systems from education, industry, military and government sectors. Given recent advances in hardware architecture and reduction of hardware costs, the time is right to define the next steps in research and development of ALEs. This book is an outgrowth of the presentations and discussions that took place at the NATO Advanced Study Institute held at the University of Calgary in July 1990. It contains chapters from both researchers in instructional science and researchers in computer science on the following topics: - Systems and architectures for instruction - Representing curriculum and designing instructional tasks - Environments to support learning - Diagnosing students' learning and adjusting plans for instruction - Models of students' metacognition, motivation and learning strategies - Student-system interactions. The book containsintroductions/critiques of each pair of chapters, and a final chapter discusses the synthesis of instructional science and computer science.

"Provides theory and research-based recommendations on information presentation techniques for multimedia and e-learning environments. Focuses on extensively researched principles and methodologies, offering comprehensive research and practical implications while providing concrete examples on adaptive multimedia learning."--Publisher description.

Online Education is a comprehensive exploration of blended and fully online teaching platforms, addressing history, theory, research, planning, and practice. As colleges, universities, and schools around the world adopt large-scale technologies and traditional class models shift into seamless, digitally interactive environments, critical insights are needed into the implications for administration and pedagogy. Written by a major contributor to the field, this book contextualizes online education in the past and present before analyzing its fundamental changes to instruction, program integration, social interaction, content construction, networked media, policy, and more. A provocative concluding chapter speculates on the future of education as the sector becomes increasingly dependent on learning technologies.

This edited book gives a comprehensive picture of the state of the art in authoring systems and authoring tools for advanced technology instructional systems. It includes descriptions of fifteen systems and research projects from almost every significant effort in the field. The book will appeal to researchers, teachers and advanced students working in education, instructional technology and computer-based education, psychology, cognitive science and computer science.

3D technology is not new; research on 3D started back in early 1960s. But unlike in previous times, 3D technology has now rapidly entered our daily life from cinema to office to home. Using 3D for education is a new yet challenging task. This book will present several innovative efforts using 3D for immersive and interactive learning covering a wide spectrum of education including gifted program, normal (technical) stream, and special needs education. The book will also share experience on curriculum-based 3D learning in classroom setting and co-curriculum-based 3D student research projects. The book is organized as follows. Chapter 1 introduces the fundamentals of 3D educational technology and their applications in immersive and interactive learning. Chapter 2 discusses the use of virtual reality in teaching and learning of Molecular Biology. Chapter 3 presents the daVinci Lab @ River Valley High School. Chapter 4 describes the 3D education development process. Chapter 5 studies the adaption 3D system for learning gains in lower secondary normal (technical) stream. Chapter 6 investigates the effects of virtual reality technology on spatial visualization skills. Chapter 7 showcases a sabbatical program for students to use 3D for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning. Chapter 8 shares the use of 3D virtual pink dolphin to assist special education. The foreword of this book is written by Dr Cheah Horn Mun, Director, Education Technology Division, Ministry of Education, Singapore.

Multimedia environments suggest to us a new perception of the state of changes in and the integration of new technologies that can increase our ability to process information. Moreover, they are obliging us to change our idea of knowledge. These changes are reflected in the obvious synergetic convergence of different types of access, communication and information exchange. The multimedia learning environment should not represent a passive object that only contains or assembles information but should become, on one side, the communication medium of the pedagogical intentions of the professor/designer and, on the other side, the place where the learner reflects and where he or she can play with, test and access information and try to interpret it, manipulate it and build new knowledge. The situation created by such a new learning environments that give new powers to individuals, particularly with regard to accessing and handling diversified dimensions of information, is becoming increasingly prevalent in the field of education. The old static equilibrium, in which fixed roles are played by the teacher (including the teaching environment) and the learner, is shifting to dynamic eqUilibrium where the nature of information and its processing change, depending on the situation, the learning context and the individual's needs.